Sunday, August 10, 2008

Signs of ADD

How's this for signs of ADD? I tried taking a nap this afternoon, but two little girls had other plans and naptime never happened (for anybody). The next few hours looked like this:

1. I started a load of laundry. I noticed the laundry room was a mess and decided to straighten it.

2. Went upstairs to tell Ryan my plan. He was emptying the dishwasher. (Thanks, Honey!) I noticed the cabinet where we keep Katrina's plates and cups was a mess and decided to straighten that first. It was really REALLY unorganized and really bothered me. Ryan decided to work downstairs. (He probably saw the crazed look in my eyes and decided to run far, far away.)

3. Then I thought I should finish emptying the dishwasher so I could reload it and run it. You know, multitask. Wash dishes while straightening a cabinet.

4. While putting away the silverware, I noticed the silverware drawer needed to be cleaned. I proceed to take out all of the silverware, vacuum the drawer then clean it with spray cleaner, and then replace the silverware. I also sorted out mismatched utensils to go in the Goodwill box.

5. Then I loaded the dishwasher.

6. 30 seconds after I started the dishwasher, Katrina handed me her empty juice cup. *sigh* I decided to hand-wash it, as well as some not-so-clean baby bottle nipples. (They don't get clean in the dishwasher!)

7. I found that we are almost out of dish soap, so I started a list for Wal-Mart.

8. Putting away the now-clean nipples made me realize the baby bottle stuff sorely needed straightening, too, so I did that.

9. Then I straightened the cabinet with Katrina's dishes. Katrina tried to 'help.' It was all I could do to not scream, "I've got it!!" (I'm very OCD about some things, in case you haven't realized that yet.)

10. Finally, I spent 20 minutes straightening the laundry room. And went to Wal-Mart and got more dish soap.

What should have been a 20-minute task took approximately two hours. I don't know if it's ADD or what, but this is seriously what my life is like. All. the. time. I start one task and end up on some weird tangent with multiple half-finished tasks behind me. My dear friend Laura says it's a sign of being too messy. I agree. But where do I start to make it better? I know not to start in the laundry room! :)

2 comments:

Lori Kuehl said...

My dear hubby is OCD and I even have some tendencies, but I completely understand where you're coming from.

Anonymous said...

Holy cow, I do the same sort of thing - start to do laundry, put away the clean stuff out of the dryer first, reorganize the dresser drawers so all the clean clothes will fit, pull out stuff to set in the garage for Goodwill, remember that I needed to refill car's windshield wiper fluid, see the watering can by the car and remember I need to water the plants, decide to pick the green beans before watering, remember that I should start dinner so it can cook while I'm doing laundry, etc. :)

Maybe it would help to limit yourself to one room at a time. Although you might need an accountability partner to make sure you stay within your limit. :)